Monday, February 20, 2017

Valentine's Day Filled With No Love...

Well the title of that basically says this week all in a nutshell hahah...

This week we held 3 more zone conferences, we have now completed 6 out of 9, and the last three will be this coming week. This week we visited the Obuasi, Konongo, and Dichemso Zones and had great conferences with all three. If it isn't already stressful enough to have a bunch of Zone Conferences during the week, we could make it a little most stressful by noticing that we weren't at most of the Obuasi Conference due to a little, tiny situation that happened this week when we went there. Well on Monday night, we went to Obuasi (which is about an hour and a half south of Kumasi) and stayed the night so Tuesday morning we could just get up there and go for the Zone Conference. That way we would actually get some sleep Monday night instead of getting up so early Tuesday morning, so we stayed in one of the missionaries apartments down there that night.

Well Tuesday morning came, and let me tell you, it was the most memorable Valentines Day that I think I'll ever have in my entire life... That morning, Elder Hill and one other missionary in the apartment we stayed in went outside with our bags, and a few seconds later ran back inside and asked if I had moved the truck from the place we parked it the night before, i replied no... and he said, well the truck is not there... At this point, i kinda laughed, just thinking Elder Hill was joking around, after all, where could the truck have gone? I know the night before we locked it all up, and what could possibly happen to a church owned vehicle? Well ill tell you what happened... We went outside, and I could not believe my eyes when I too opened the gate and didn't see the truck... My heart sank, and the first thing that i thought of was that my scriptures were gone... Any missionary can tell you what they would feel if they lost their scriptures... that was thee worst feeling ever. Well we ran inside, got our phone and got in a taxi and rushed to the police station (don't actually know why we went there cause the police really don't do anything here...) Anyway we waited there for President Cosgrave to show up, the whole time we were also on the phone with people there in Obuasi, and even people from the Area Office in Accra.

Well the first sign of evidence was a man by the name of Kf who had called President Cosgrave and told him that he had found a bunch of stuff in a field that belonged to us, and from that we were sure that it was just some stuff that the thieves had dropped off so they didn't have anything that we could track them with. Well shortly after that, we got a text message with coordinate points of where the car tracker was, and we thought for sure that we had just found the car! We figured that the car tracker was buried deep somewhere in the car where nobody could get it out. Well... Ha we drove to the spot where the tracker led us, and we found the stuff that that guy, Kf, had called us and found. There we found that whoever stole it was very good because they ripped out the car tracker, tore off the licensing and registration, and even removed the shell of the truck. By the time we found all those items, including a bunch of stuff that was in the car, pamphlets, letters for other missionaries, even a box of copies of the Book of Mormon (don't know why they didn't take those too haha) It was around 10:00 AM that day, and the thieves were long gone. The miracle that happened was that they left our scripture bags! That was also the way that the Kf guy called President Cosgrave, cause I had a note inside my bag that had his phone number on it, so it was seriously a miracle that he found it and called!

Well all that, the truck is still gone, along with over a thousand dollars worth of electronic equipment that we use for zone conferences (projectors, cords) and along with my wallet and a bunch of other stuff that was in the car... It was a devastating day, that is sure.. The remainder of the day, we were riding with President and Sister Cosgrave.

We made it to the end of the Obuasi Zone Conference, though we weren't all the way there mentally..

Well, To make things even more awesome for the week, the other car that is usually here, a Toyota Corolla, it got taken to Accra for maintenance for a few days, and so we were on foot for a few days til Saturday morning when it showed back up. While we were on foot, we had some time on Friday and Saturday to go out and contact, and man it is almost like the devil was giving us everything he had this week, first of all the truck, then we went out and literally NOT ONE person we talked to would give us the time of day... we didn't teach a single lesson in hours and hours of walking and talking to people, we easily contacted 40-50 people, introduced ourselves and as soon as we did so, they either told us they were busy, they weren't interested, or other excuses... I have heard so many crappy excuses that I could go on for hours listing them. But it goes to show that this work truly is divine. It is the Lord's work. The Savior Jesus Christ said to His Apostles in John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” I know that I am truly representing Jesus Christ because there are many who do reject and persecute us. He told us that they would, and I am seeing it and living it right now as His representative. I am thankful for that opportunity to be strengthened through the Atonement. I do know that this work is true, to also quote Joseph Smith, he said that“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

It has been a testimony building week, and I know that this work will go on, and I am thankful that I can boldly and nobly declare to the corners of Daban and the Kumasi Mission, that I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and living church on the face of the Earth today. We may never see our truck again, we may never even know who took it, but we have the truth of God in our hands and I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for the fact that I am still living and testifying of His Truth.